


There's Something about Crying Until You Fall Asleep

by theskyefalls (emmathecharming)



Series: Fitzsimmons Post-Ep and Missing Scene Drabbles [5]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 04:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7669828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmathecharming/pseuds/theskyefalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the latest installment in my series of ficlets that serve as either missing scenes or perspective changes of sorts. This one falls after the end of 4,722 Hours after Jemma tells Fitz what happened on Maveth and Fitz agrees to help her get back there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's Something about Crying Until You Fall Asleep

Fitz stops as he passes the door to Jemma’s bunk. He’s made it part of his nightly routine since she came back to walk past her door every night to reassure himself that she is okay, a compromise after she ardently (but fruitlessly) tried to convince him that she was. Most nights he simply heard her tossing and turning. Some nights she talked in her sleep. But tonight was different.

This time when he walks past her door, he thinks he can hear her crying. The thought of her laying in the dark alone like that tears at his heart. He stands there a moment listening, wanting to do _something_.

He silently pushes her door open. He won’t stay, he tells himself, but he just wants to see her, to make sure she’s okay. Well not okay exactly-obviously she isn’t okay. But she’s strong and she’ll make it through.

“Fitz, is that you?” Her voice is small, not even a whisper between the slowing sobs. _Of course she knows it’s him_.

“Yeah,” he whispers as quietly as he can. “I heard- and well I wanted to-” He stumbles over his words, unsure that he wants to share his new tradition.

“Stay…” Her voice is still soft and he can’t tell if it was a question or an instruction. It doesn’t matter.

He carefully shuts the door behind him and slowly crosses the space between them. He takes in the way Jemma is laying on the bed, tightly curled into herself with her head no longer on her pillow, before moving to sit next to her.

He can barely get settled against her headboard before he hears her stirring beside him. He feels her head rest on his knee and he listens as she takes a few still shallow breaths before he feels the sobs begin to shake her shoulders again.

He lays his hand on her arm and begins to rub small circles on her shoulder with his thumb. He knows she doesn’t want to talk about it and so he doesn’t. He just lets her cry everything out. _It’s a natural reaction to overwhelming emotions_ ; he thinks of what she had told him many times before.

He can hardly blame her for reacting this way, goodness knows she’s been through a lot over the last six months, their conversations before she left, being dragged away by the monolith, surviving on that planet, meeting and then losing Will.

He stays still and quiet as he listens to her crying. He tries to soothe the sobs that are still sending ripples through her body. He listens as they slowly grow less frequent, her breathing becoming deeper. Finally, he can hear her breathing slow to the pace it had the last time they sat like this, she’s sleeping.

_The last time they sat like this…_ As they sit there together, he cannot help but think about that night. It was the first night after she came back from the planet. He’d felt just as helpless that night too. But tonight, he thinks, he is a little less hopeless. Tonight he knows what she went through on that terrible planet and they’ve made it clear that they’re in this together. There are no longer any secrets between them. It won’t be easy- getting back to normal will take a while, he knows that- but he finally feels like just maybe they can get there someday.


End file.
